The Easiest Way to Cook Pork

Cooking meat can sometimes seem like a luxury — the kind of thing you only do on the weekend, or when there's a big celebration. That's because the "best," tenderest cuts of meat are also usually the most expensive, and the cheaper ones (like shoulder) usually involve slower cooking methods, like braising, that can take all day. But those rules don't always need to apply. As we've said before, there's more to life than filet mignon — there are a lot of different cuts out there, and a lot of different ways to cook them.

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Short of taking a butchering class (which is becoming increasingly popular these days), the best way to learn more about the different kinds of meat might be Meat: A Kitchen Education, a new cookbook by James Peterson, a longtime food writer and teacher with a few James Beard awards. As cookbooks go, his is a pretty simple and practical one: The chapters are broken down by animal type — chicken and turkey, fowl and rabbit, pork, beef, veal, lamb. There's also an introduction to basic cooking techniques, photo panels that break down each recipe step-by-step, and some helpful diagrams of pigs and cows, showing you where each cut actually comes from. The recipes themselves are unadventurous, even obligatory — classic beef Wellington, a basic sautéed quail in white-wine sauce. But the value of the book comes more from its ability to illuminate the process itself. Peterson dispels some common myths, including the oft-repeated notion that browning before braising "helps seal in juices" (actually, they still escape, but it does make a deliciously savory crust), and he makes cases for some techniques that seem antiquated or even kind of gross, like "larding" (whereby you cut strips of pig fat and literally sew them through a cut of meat).

There's more basic advice, too: After deciding I wanted to cook pork, I picked out easily the simplest recipe — a roast pork tenderloin (which you can find below). As Peterson says, pork tenderloin is pretty cheap compared to the same cut on other animals, and it only takes about thirty minutes to make. Peterson's recipe calls for two one-pound loins, but I just bought one, which was about $12 at Trader Joe's. After liberally seasoning it with salt and pepper, you brown the tenderloin in a pan with olive oil on high heat (there's no time listed but I did it for about five minutes on each side). Then throw it in the oven on 400 degrees for ten minutes, or until it's firm to the touch, and let it rest.

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That's about it. No marinade, no minced garlic — just a simply cooked piece of meat, crackling on the outside and perfectly tender inside. Peterson does, however, recommend making a jus out of what's left in the pan: After you've taken off the tenderloin, put the pan back on high heat until the juices evaporate (you can see a picture below). What you'll have left is a layer of brown crust and some fat. Pour off the fat, then put in some water, pushing a wooden spoon around to deglaze all the brown bits off the bottom. What you get is a light sauce (not even a sauce, really) that makes the most out of the pork's natural flavor — a waste-less approach, and also the kind of thing most people would forget to do. That might be the best thing about Meat: As simple as it is, it reminds you how great just meat can taste.

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James Peterson's Roast Pork Tenderloin

Most pork tenderloins weight about 1 pound, which means that one is a bit much for two people and not enough for three. Just plan on having leftovers.

• 2 pork tenderloins, about 1 pound each

• Salt

• Pepper

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• 3/4 cup water

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Trim the silver skin off the tenderloins. Season the tenderloins all over with salt and pepper. In an ovenproof pan, heat the olive oil over high heat. (Alternatively, use two ovenproof pans.) When the oil begins to smoke, add the tenderloins and brown well on all sides. Slide the whole pan in the oven and roast for about 10 minutes, or until the tenderloins feel firm to the touch or an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of a tenderloin reads 140 degrees Fahrenheit.

Remove from the oven, tent loosely with aluminum foil while still in the pan, and let rest for 10 minutes. (You leave the tenderloins in the pan so the juices they continue to release end up in the pan.) Transfer the tenderloins to a warmed platter, tent again, and set aside in a warm place.

To create a jus, put the pan on the stove top over high heat and boil down the juices until they evaporate and form a crusty brown layer with a layer of clear fat on top. Pour off the fat, return the pan to high heat, and deglaze with the water, stirring with a wooden spoon until the crust has dissolved into the liquid. Strain the liquid through a fine-mesh strainer into a warmed sauceboat.

Slice the tenderloin and arrange slices on warmed plates. Pass the jus at the table.

Recipe reprinted with permission from Meat: A Kitchen Education by James Peterson, copyright 2010. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc.

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